Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Whirling Darvish

Tuesday May 1, 9:36 p.m.

Last night, there was a pop cultural nexus of sorts formed within my city of Toronto. Both "The Avengers"and Yu Darvish were in town. One is overrated.

And it isn't Yu's fault. That ridiculous posting system made him overrated as soon as the Texas Rangers threw over $100 million across the Pacific. No matter how talented anyone is, he/she simply isn't worth $52 million just to flirt with. Having said that, Darvish earned a small piece of his deserved income last night by throwing 9 strikeouts and handcuffing the Jays to just four hits and one home run.

I watched both the Sportscentre analysis and the NHK News report on last night's game. The guys at the former did what they were supposed to do with any pitcher and commented on the techniques and tactics that Yu had utilized to get his third straight win. The latter didn't even mention the final score....they went into the mystique of Yu. I guess going Zen would be appropriate for the Japanese media. Still, it does reinforce its interest in merely the Japanese players working overseas rather than any particular interest in Major League Baseball.